Comments on: Why Pedagogy Is No Longer Enough

By: dulo

Sun, 23 Nov 2014 14:28:05 +0000

Thank you very much. I get your approach very important for teachers to prepare themselves for effective teaching. I am a university lecturer in pedagogy. Presently I am training university teachers on how to teach, especially the newly recruited teachers before they begin to teach. Always I am in need of means by which I can advance my knowledge and skills on how to help these teachers. So, your idea is so great for me and even I need short term training from western universities to build my experience if possible. Because they have rich experiences on theories of learning and methods of teaching for many years than any part of the world.
God bless you!
From Dulo

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By: minh mcCloy

Wed, 07 May 2014 06:31:31 +0000

Should educational institutions survive? Why is it an unchallenged assumption that they are the best and only possible purveyors of learning.

Self-determination implies choice. Heutagogically I choose to mostly avoid the institutions because they stultify. I may dip and sip but the bad taste of the standard offerings soon sees me off.

Those institutions need to give up on their monopolistic mindset and adopt adaptability.

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By: minh mcCloy

Wed, 07 May 2014 06:24:35 +0000

You can learn to delay gratification. Follow up work on that initial research with the little kids has shown that like so much its a skill that can be acquired. People who can delay gratification employ techniques.

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By: Ian Lynch

Sun, 06 Apr 2014 21:56:43 +0000

I think where David is right is that there is still fundamental knowledge needed to underpin use of knowledge but it soon gets complicated as to what is vital, what is nice to have and what is redundant. I’m a scientist by background but I wrote applications for specialist schools status in every subject area. I used the internet to do it and learnt quite a bit in the process but that in itself requires some specific knowledge to know how to do it. I learnt how to get a new exam board set up and accredited by Ofqual. there is no course of teaching to do that. Pretty well all the computing I know has not been formally taught. Sure I had some background knowledge but most of that was not acquired by formal teaching either. This is why I’m not against knowledge acquisition, its important but other things are as well and that is where I think I part company with David. At least that what it seems but that could be the communication medium. These things are better discussed face to face over a pint of Guinness, methinks.

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By: David

Sun, 06 Apr 2014 19:26:13 +0000

David/Ian:
Interesting points and thanks for commenting. Re motivation: I’m on Ian’s side on this one. As Ken Robinson has frequently said ‘you can’t make anyone learn anything. I went to a school where we were forced to study Latin. The teacher’s preferred motivation was a thick leather strap. I cannot remember a single thing I learned in those Latin classes. Is motivation a blind alley for sportspeople? I think not (admittedly, I’m biased being a Sunderland supporter) I started learning to play golf 3 decades ago. I’m still learning, because I love the game.

Re knowledge: I think the context is changing everywhere. The economic value of knowledge is worth precious little – it’s the application of that knowledge that has value. That’s true in almost every aspect of the so-called ‘knowledge economy’. Yet we still have school systems that value being able to memorise elements of the periodic table, rather than developing skills.

I was reminded of the speed of the changing context just a few months ago. I played golf in India with an 8 year-old boy who taught himself how to swing a golf club entirely by watching YouTube videos of Tiger Woods. Despite coming from a rural village in India, he’s now world champion for his age-group. Could that have happened 10 years ago?

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